There are different types of digital marketing, and each of them is different in the way they can help your business grow.
Let’s take a look at some of the popular ones in this post.
Digital Marketing: A Brief Introduction
Digital marketing, nowadays, refers mainly to marketing done over the Internet. Yes, I know. This is not the actual definition. Technically speaking, digital marketing includes all activities that are done via digital means. And this includes even phone calls.
The obsoletion of some of these older mediums is the reason for the colloquial association of digital marketing solely with Internet-related things like blogs and social media, etc.
In other words…
Since dialer phones and radios aren’t used a lot nowadays, the words “digital marketing” automatically bring to mind activities like emails and blogs.
Digital Marketing: Some of the Main Types
Here are some of the main types of digital marketing:
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
There are others as well, but we’re going to take these forward for now.
1. Content Marketing
Probably the most popular of the lot, content marketing is the type of digital marketing that involves creating content and publishing/sharing it with the right audience. The marketing, in this instance, is done via the content.
There are different ways in which content marketing is done. Some popular mediums include:
- Blogs
- Infographics
- Social media posts
- E-books
- Newsletters
And so on.
How does this help your business grow?
Content marketing can help your business grow by exposing it to a vast online audience. For example, a lot of content marketing efforts are done via search engines. And according to this blog on Ahrefs, around 68% of all online experiences start with search engines. Targeting this medium can give your business a boost in its popularity since it can get into the view of search engine users (which happen to be in many millions daily).
Other than this, content marketing can also help in growing your business by building and growing your online readership. Content marketing is different from other marketing methods in that it mainly focuses on providing useful information rather than chucking advertisements at the readers/visitors. This can help shape the image of the brand as a helpful and problem-solving entity rather than one that is only focused on making sales and money.
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the type of marketing that involves promoting a brand, offering, or entity via social media.
This type of marketing can include the creation of content, after which it can be shared via social media. When we say “social media,” we don’t particularly refer to platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Even chatting apps like WhatsApp and Messenger can be the mediums used for this type of marketing.
How can this marketing help your business grow?
Social media marketing can help your business grow since it targets the place(s) that are perhaps more frequented by any other place on the Internet. Almost everyone uses social media in some capacity.
Having a social media presence can also be beneficial for your company since it can give your customers/leads a place to get in touch with you. When people find your business easy to interact and communicate with, they are more likely to patronize it as well.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be technically categorized as a branch of content marketing since it typically involves written content. But it is diverse enough to be called a type of marketing on its own.
In this type of marketing, a particular product or service is advertised by a person – who then makes a commission after that particular product or service is sold.
People usually do affiliate marketing on their blogs. This allows them to give the marketing content maximum exposure and likewise increase the money they make.
How does this marketing help grow your business?
Affiliate marketing can be helpful in growing your business somewhat more directly in the financial sense. With affiliate marketing, you can get your products exposed to potential buyers via a medium other than your company site or social media pages, etc.
In this type of marketing, the affiliate marketer recommends your products to their readers as their own suggestions. This can be even more helpful in improving your business’s reputation and making it grow.
4. Email marketing
Perhaps the simplest yet most effective digital marketing strategy nowadays is email marketing.
As the name aptly describes, email marketing involves a business sending emails to its customers or potential customers to increase its sales or leads, and so on. For marketing purposes, basically.
There are different types of messages that can be sent as part of an email marketing campaign. For example, a company can send an email to its customers to inform them about new discounts/sales. They can similarly be used to announce new products and the like.
How can this marketing help your business grow?
Email marketing can help your business grow by helping you reach out to end consumers directly in their inboxes. In a lot of other marketing strategies, it’s up to the viewer to come and look at the marketing material.
With email marketing, you can make it easier for said viewers.
In a nutshell, email marketing helps in your business growth by making your marketing efforts reach such people who would have perhaps not bothered to look for them on their own.
Some general tips for digital marketing
While that was pretty much it for the types of digital marketing, let’s take a look at some general tips that you can follow to get the most out of your efforts.
- Before engaging in any marketing activity, be sure to plan it out first. Having a plan beforehand can help you save precious time, and it can help you stay focused on the actual task(s) instead of going off at irrelevant angles.
- Determine and pick an opportune time for your marketing activities. Find a time when your audience will be most receptive and willing to take action.
- Save time and resources by utilizing online tools for digital marketing. Use tools like Ahrefs to do the necessary research. Use MS Word for writing content, Canva for creating visuals, and Raphraser for improving the overall quality of your write-ups. These are some examples, but you can pick some according to your particular need and requirement.
- Whenever you engage in any marketing activity, always look at the results you get. If the results are positive, memorize and utilize the same type of techniques and methods in the future. On the other hand, if the results are negative, learn from them to avoid making the same mistakes again.
Conclusion
Nowadays, using digital marketing is something essential that every business has to do in order to say abreast of their competitors. While there are many other different types of techniques and methods included in digital marketing, we’ve mentioned a few of the main popular ones in the post above.
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